SAPERE VIII: Allegory of Life: The Tablet of Kebes

Allegory of Life: The Pictorial Tablet of Kebes, introduced, translated and provided with interpretative essays by Rainer Hirsch-Luipold / Reinhard Feldmeier / Barbara Hirsch / Lutz Koch / Heinz-Günther Nesselrath, Darmstadt 2005.

An enigmatic image on a consecration tablet in the sanctuary of Kronos leads the participants of this dialogue to central questions in the search for personal happiness. The image shows an allegory of the (life) path to the summit of happiness. On this path, man must leave behind personified temptations and vices as well as illusory education in order to let true education lead him to virtue and happiness. Popular until the end of the 19th century because of its vividness and pedagogical quality, but then forgotten, the text is presented again for the first time after more than a hundred years with a German translation and annotations. In addition to an introduction and a discussion of the question of the author, five essays on philological, philosophical and religious-historical aspects of the text, its background in terms of motif history and its reception in art and pedagogy serve to deepen understanding.

Reviews:

• International Review of Biblical Studies 52 (5/2006), 1383.
• D. DONNET, L’Antiquité Classique 76 (2007), 295f.
• New Testament Abstracts 50/1 (2006), 211.
• I. RAMELLI, Anzeiger für die Altertumswissenschaft LXI, 1./2. Heft (2008), 76-79.

Hirsch-Luipold, Rainer; Hirsch, Barbara; Feldmeier, Reinhard; Koch, Lutz; Nesselrath, Heinz-Günther
Composite volume; German, Ancient Greek
Published: 2005
Publisher: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt: Darmstadt
ISBN: 3-534-15574-2